"Sujatha" Rangarajan / Ganesh / Vasanth :)

Let's discuss these iconic characters in the "vegu jana" (i.e. general public) readers' world of TN

fring151 wrote:How are the Ganesh-Vasanth stories? I have heard a lot about them, but never read any...

The question made me recall two interesting novels that got published by "malaimathi".

Late 70's had Kumudam Publications setup their own high-speed offset press I think. (Prior to that, they had to depend upon some Sivakasi printing company for "color" / offset printing and had to get their covers outsourced.) Once they invested in huge machinery, they wanted to get the max juice out of it and started publishing more periodicals - to keep the printing machines busy thru out the week. Thus began "mAlai mathi" which was publishing "இது வரை வெளி வந்திராத புதிய நாவல்".

Well, I was a regular reader of many of those novels during mAlai mathi's first couple of years (that was the time I was migrating from muthu comics kind of books to novels that could be potentially PG-13 / R rated).

And, I must say, I really loved Sujatha's works for them more than his serials on magazines (which I liked as well). That way, while I consider "pirivOm sandhippOm part 1" & "en iniya iyanthira part 1" as two of the best stories by Sujatha, that both appeared as serials in vikatan, I would rate the two novels he wrote for mAlai mathi more than many thodar kadhaikaL he wrote in all magazines.

1. edhaiyum oru muRai (எதையும் ஒரு முறை)

2. maRubadiyum Ganesh (மறுபடியும் கணேஷ்)

Both these stories have the Lawyer Ganesh & his assistant Vasanth as lead characters - those iconic characters that Sujatha made (and TF murdered horribly in the film Priya. That movie had Rajinikanth play Ganesh & I think Ambarish played Vasanth - horrible movie with the exception of rAsA songs).

The most interesting part to me of the Ganesh-Vasanth stories are not the stories themselves. (Though they appeared thrilling those days, they may not be as shocking / suspense thrillers anymore. Also, they may have been heavily inspired from abroad What's more, for someone who reads "English novels" regularly, such stories may sound childish comics even).

OTOH, what was most thrilling to me then and now are the CONVERSATIONS / the "dialogues" penned by Sujatha. Brilliant, racy, enjoyable and terrific! That way, such stories by Sujatha will always be thrilling to me

Both the above stories have that fantastic last para (rather last sentence)!

fring151, get these two and please spend some time with Ganesh / Vasanth, whom I love!

One important warning in reading Ganesh - Vasanth stories :

NEVER EVER IMAGINE ANY FILM HERO in their roles

Just stick to the images that the artist Jayaraj drew as Ganesh / Vasanth (that terrific artist who used to sign as "ஜெ..." where the number of dots accounted for the #of members in his family)

Otherwise 75% of the thrill will disappear!

Thanks for the background and recos App saar! Will try to get hold of these books. I already have En iniya iyandhira, but haven't started reading it yet though have become a fan of his short story writing (though some are banal too)

Meanwhile you are yet to complete your story of Sujatha's reaction to that violin piece in the other thread. Balamaa Builld-up kuduthutu vittutinga  

Not read a lot of Sujatha though I have an e book of his short stories. One story I was mighty impressed with was his futuristic Thimala. Fabulous story. Anyone read?

Nope. I bought three compilations of his short stories, but haven't seen this so far.

Appji - அப்டியே அந்த மெக்ஸிகன் சலவைக்காரி ஜோக்கையும் சொல்லிடுங்க..  

Nerd wrote:Appji - அப்டியே அந்த மெக்ஸிகன் சலவைக்காரி ஜோக்கையும் சொல்லிடுங்க..  

சுஜாதா எங்கேயும் சொல்லி இருக்கிற மாதிரி எனக்குத்தெரியலை.

"மற்ற" ஜோக் என்ற அளவில் யூகிக்க முடியுமே ஒழிய 'என்ன ஜோக்'னு இது வரை தெரியாதே
(ஹாஸ்டலில் அவ்வப்போது இதைப்பற்றிப் பேச்சு வரும். தெரிந்தவர்கள் யாரும் எங்களில் இல்லை என்பது ஒரு சின்ன சோகம், அந்நாட்களில்!)

fring151 wrote:you are yet to complete your story of Sujatha's reaction to that violin piece

Will post ASAP

One of the lesser stories of Sujatha with Ganesh / Vasanth was "kolaiyudhir kAlam".

This appeared in kumudam as a serial and someone had done a pdf of it and hosted here (no pictures, that is bad) :

http://eegarai.info/books/sujatha/Kolaiyudir%20Kaalam.pdf

While this is ranked much lower among Sujatha's works, by no way this is worse than any of his contemporaries. That way, it's still a worthy read IMO

உவமைகள் அவளை வர்ணிக்க ஓவர்டைம் வாங்க வேண்டும்

app,
 Thanks for the link..

Book il paditha kalam poi.... computer il.........  (kannadi pottum book il padika konjam kashtamaga irukira karanathal..
computer il.. font ai periyathiki... easy aga padika mudigira karanathal... computer il padika pidithu irukiradhu..........  )

chinna doubt.. copy paste seiya mudiyalaiyae.......  epadi seivadhu......

Usha wrote:chinna doubt.. copy paste seiya mudiyalaiyae.......  epadi seivadhu......

That PDF document cannot be copy pasted

One has to re-type in Thamizh akkA

sari app. Thanks for the response.........

Though I said kolaiyudhir kAlam is one of the lesser ones by Sujatha, I've read it for the second time in just one sitting
(My first reading was when it came week after week in Kumudam, with those "dhideer thiruppam" expectation set each week before "thodarum" )

Like I said, it's very average if one purely looks from a suspense / thriller angle. (More so when read after a couple of decades One has to adjust for the time period it was written, when people didn't know anything about CD even let alone cell phones).

OTOH, the dialogs are nach-nach, fresh as always!  

And one has to give credits for the amount of research that Sujatha had to do for each of his work.

I would say not insignificant compared to what much more acclaimed international writers did for theirs.

Looks like this is an official store for Sujatha's works:
http://writersujatha.com/ecommerce/catalog/

Let's hope the proceeds benefit his family...

I guess new vasana karthAs can make a film-dialog-career simbly by reading Sujatha's works and use some of the smart ones!
(e.g. 'pAri, ennA pEr idhu' in naNban is a simple repeat of 'KumaravyAsan, enna pEr idhu' from kolaiyudhir kAlam)

Thalaimai seiyalagam...  indha book endru dhan ninaikiren......... idhil....  Moolaiyai patri solli irupar......

adhil..  thalaiyil adi pattal.. varum kashtam...  solli  irupar... 

ennudaiya accident..  nadandhu   oru varusham agi irukum endru ninaikiren. apodhu  ellam.. yarum en kashtathai
purindhu kollavillai.. aiyo pavam endru  ennai gavanithu kondargal... adhil kurai ilai.. ennai parthal..  naan nanraga irukiren.
en thalai vali.. thalai suthal.. kazhuathu vali.. edhuvum puriyavillai yarukum...

Sujatha..  indha kashtathai.. romba azhagaga solli irupar.. idharku apparam.. yar ennai parthalum..  unnai than
ninaithen.. nee solluvaiyae endru....... sonnargal......... Big Thanks to Sujatha...  ( book  padiakara nilaiyil appodhu ilai.. Thalai 
suthum........  )

That is scary Usha chechi (head injury)   

Yes, Sujatha's articles are always interesting (even if one does not agree with him 100%, the nadai is captivating!)

app_engine wrote:That is scary Usha chechi (head injury)   

Yes, Sujatha's articles are always interesting (even if one does not agree with him 100%, the nadai is captivating!)

app,
yes... apo dhan MRI, CT scan ellam vandha pudhusu.. so. nalla treatment kedachu.. nallabadiya pozhachen..

Sujatha nadai...... always Creative.......... oru variyil.. camera angle il.. neraiya vishayathai solliduvar........

pudhu vishayam.... pudhusa think panradhu......... avaruku yarum inai ilai idhu varai...........

Vinyana siru kadhaigal....... Great one.......... oru kadhaiyil... tamizh epadi azhiya poradhu garadhai appovae solli irupar.
puri. puriyaradhu.. apuri.. puriyalai......... like tat.........

MAJOR SPOILER, if you plan to read "kolaiyudhir kAlam" for the first time, please skip this post:

One blogger slAgiththufies that 'kolaiyudhir kAlam' was great in augmenting current science inventions:
http://enularalkal.blogspot.com/2010/01/blog-post_11.html

However, that kolaiyudhir was done in 1981 makes one wonder if Sujatha got inspired by Muthu Comics

I was such a fan of the 1980 Muthu comics story "கொலைக்கு விலை பேசும் கொடியவன்"

It was a Mandrake & Lothar story where the "magician hero" cannot hypnotize the villain and thus gets into trouble. (I still remember the villain's name "கூலர்" who does a hi-tech escape in the end).

The reason why Mandrake cannot hypnotize கூலர் is because of the same technology that is the central theme for Sujatha's kolaiyudhir kAlam

That both these books start with the kolai word and use the same new tech makes one seriously think that Sujatha was reading Muthu Comics too

(In all probability he did IMHO).

BTW, I was so much interested in that area during college days (kind of spurred on by these stories) and did a paper presentation...

Recently finished reading "En iniya iyandhira". Fantastic read. Loved the character development and dialogues. The way an inanimate robot is brought to life through witty, sharp dialogues and writing is delightful! Fascinating, futuristic plot and racy, edge of the seat stuff throughout. I felt some questions were left answered (maybe deliberate?) and there are also a couple of improbable plot twists, but definitely recommended. Very elegant writing as usual.

fring151 wrote: I felt some questions were left answered (maybe deliberate?) and there are also a couple of improbable plot twists, but definitely recommended.

He wrote part-2 of that (meeNdum Geno)...not as great as part-1 but good...I think it closed all open questions...

Nandri saar! Appo kaNdippa 2nd partayaum padichhe aanum    .

imo his novels haven't aged that well though his writings on life/tech and short stories are a different kettle. last week
picked up his book chronicling his time in the industry, absolute riot, best bits are him interviewing not so bright celebs and his reviews of 70s/80s flicks.
Sivakumar bitching about Sakkalavallavan and KH about hindi cinema/Rama naidu and Sujatha interviewing his namesake actress were

vikatan FB post

* சுஜாதாவின் பிரபலமான மெக்ஸிகோ சலவைக்காரி ஜோக்கைக் கடைசி வரைக்கும் அவர் வாசகர்களுக்குச் சொல்லவே இல்லை. ஆனால், மிக நெருங்கிய நண்பர்கள் அத்தனை பேருக்கும் அந்த ஜோக்கைச் சொல்லி வாய்விட்டுச் சிரிப்பார் சுஜாதா. செம கி ஜோக் அது!